The Chignecto Isthmus and its first settlers Part 3

There is no information about any of the following grantees: Gideon Gardner, Sara Jones, Ebenezer Storer, Daniel Earl, Anthony Burk.

Windser Eager was from Dumfries, Scotland.

It is a matter of surprise that so many names to be found in the lists of a hundred years ago have so completely disappeared.

A large number of families who came from New England at this time settled on the St. John River. They called their settlement Maugerville. The name Sunbury was subsequently given to the whole of the Province west of c.u.mberland County.

The Hon. Charles Burpee, of Sheffield, writes me that there were about two hundred families who at this time found homes along the river. Some of their names were: Perley, Barker, Burpee, Stickney, Smith, Wa.s.son, Bridges, Upton, Palmer, Coy, Estey, Estabrooks, Pickard, Hayward, Nevers, Hartt, Kenney, Coburn, Plummer, Sage, Whitney, Quinton, Moore, McKeen, Jewett.

Simonds and White came to St. John some three or four years before the others. The Rev. Mr. n.o.ble was there before the Revolution, but he did not come with the first settlers.

Largely through the influence of the Loyalists, in 1784, the Province of New Brunswick was set off from Nova Scotia, and the Missiquash River made the boundary between the two Provinces. This division cut the old towns.h.i.+p of c.u.mberland into two halves. Those who conducted the business for New Brunswick wanted the line at La Planche, or further east, while the Nova Scotians wanted it at the Aulac or further west.

They compromised on the Missiquash.* This division made some trouble in nomenclature and has puzzled a good many persons since that date. The part of the old towns.h.i.+p of c.u.mberland on the west of the Missiquash became the parish of Westmoreland, in the county of Westmoreland. Fort c.u.mberland was in this district, and between Fort c.u.mberland and the old towns.h.i.+p of c.u.mberland, and the still older county of c.u.mberland, which once embraced the present Westmoreland and Albert counties, and the present county of c.u.mberland in Nova Scotia, there was a good deal of confusion. A number of years pa.s.sed before c.u.mberland Point came to be called Westmoreland Point.

[FOOTNOTE: *The establishment of the Missiquash as the boundary between the two Provinces was eminently satisfactory to New Brunswick, but not so to Nova Scotia, as the latter Province at once vigorously protested against it, and did not seem inclined to give up agitating for a change. In 1792 the House of a.s.sembly of Nova Scotia presented an address to the Lieutenant-Governor, in which they say "there is a very pressing necessity of an alteration in the division line, between this and the neighboring Province of New Brunswick." This agitation for a change in the boundary was kept up for several years, and in the correspondence, three other lines are suggested by Nova Scotia as being preferable to the one that had been already chosen.

The first of these was one from the head of the tide on the Pet.i.tcodiac to the head of the tide on the Restigouche River. A second from the head of the tide on the Memramcook by a certain magnetic line to the salt water of Cocagne Harbor, and the third by the course of the Aulac River to its head, and thence by a given compa.s.s line to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The present line was last surveyed by Alex. Munroe in 1859, under Commissioner James Steadman, Esq., acting for New Brunswick, and Joseph Avard, Esq., for Nova Scotia. The line is thus described by the Commissioners: Commencing at the mouth of the Missiquash River, in c.u.mberland Bay, and thence following the several courses of the said river to a post near Black Island, thence north fifty-four degrees, twenty-five minutes east, crossing the south end of Black Island, two hundred and eighty-eight chains to the south angle of Trenholm's Island, thence south thirty-seven degrees east, eighty-five chains and eight-two links to a post, thence south seventy-six degrees east, forty-six chains and twenty links to the portage, thence south sixty- five degrees, forty-five minutes east, three hundred and ninety-four chains and forty links to Tidnish Bridge, then following the several courses of said river, along its northern upward bank to its mouth, thence following the north-westerly channel to the deep water of the Bay water, giving to Nova Scotia the control of the navigable waters on Tidnish River.

Those wis.h.i.+ng to get fuller information relating to this or any of the boundaries of New Brunswick, will find the subject treated exhaustively in a work just published, ent.i.tled "A Monograph of the Evolution of the Boundaries of the Province of New Brunswick," by William F. Ganong, M.A., Ph.D., from which the above facts are taken. END OF FOOTNOTE]

The following facts are taken from the anniversary number of the CHIGNECTO POST, 1895:

"On the 15th August, 1761, Captain Benoni Danks, Messrs. William Allan, Abeil Richardson, John Huston and John Oates were appointed to divide the forfeited lands in the towns.h.i.+p of c.u.mberland.

"On the 19th August of the same year Captain Winckworth Tonge, Joshua Winslow, John Huston, John Jencks, Joshua Sprague, Valentine Estabrooks and William Maxwell were appointed a committee to admit persons into the towns.h.i.+p of Sackville.

"The first town meeting, or meeting of the committee, for Sackville towns.h.i.+p, took place on 20th July, 1762. It was held at the house of Mrs. Charity Bishop, who kept an inn at c.u.mberland. There were present Captain John Huston, Doctor John Jencks, Joshua Sprague, Valentine Estabrooks, William Maxwell and Joshua Winslow. Captain Huston was made chairman and Ichabod Comstock clerk.

"The conditions and locations of the proposed new grant of Sackville were of the first interest to the newly arrived settlers, and the proceedings were largely taken up with settling such matters. It was resolved that a family of six, and seven head of cattle, should have one and a half shares, or 750 acres.

"At the next meeting, held on 31st August, Mr. Elijah Ayers' name appears as a committeeman.

"At a town meeting, held on 18th April, 1770, Robert Scott was appointed moderator and Robert Foster, clerk. They, with John Thomas, were appointed a committee to settle with the old committee for the survey of the lands."

About 1786, the inhabitants of Sackville made a return of the state of the settlement to the Government to show that if a proposed escheat was made it would be attended with great confusion, as but few of the grants had not been improved. The actual settlers at that date, as set forth in the return, appear to have been as follows:

LETTER A.

Samuel Bellew. John Peck.

Joseph Brown. John Barns.

Samuel Rogers. Ebenezer Burnham.

Samuel Saunders. Simon Baisley.

Valentine Estabrooks. Wm. Carnforth.

Andrew Kinnear. Abial Peck.

James Jincks. Nathaniel Shelding.

Eleazer Olney. Job Archernard.

Nathan Mason. Jonathan Burnham.

LETTER B.

Charles Dixon. Gilbert Seaman.

John Richardson. Joseph Read.

John Fawcett. Wm. Carnforth.

George Bulmer. John Wry.

Thomas Bowser. Moses Delesdernier.

Joseph Delesdernier. Daniel Tingley.

Michael Burk. Wm. Laurence.

Samuel Seamans. Ben Tower.

Joseph Tower. Elijah Ayer.

Joseph Thompson. John Thompson.

Mark Patton. Eliphalet Read.

Nehemiah Ayer. Josiah Tingley.

James Cole. Jonathan Cole.

Hezekiah King. Valentine Estabrooks.

LETTER C.

Wm. Estabrooks. Gideon Smith.

Daniel Stone. Patton Estabrooks.

Pickering Snowdon. Thomas Potter.

Nehemiah Ward. John Weldon.

John Fillmore. Jos. C. Lamb.

John Grace. Josiah Hicks.

Angus McPhee. Joseph Sears.

Wm. Fawcett. Benjamin Emmerson.

Jonathan Eddy. t.i.tus Thornton.

CHAPTER III

THE YORKs.h.i.+RE IMMIGRATION.

Yorks.h.i.+re is grouped as one of the six northern counties of England.

Jackson Wray calls it "one of the bonniest of English s.h.i.+res." It has an area of 6,076 square miles, making it the largest county in England.

Its present population is a trifle over three millions. A coast-line of one hundred miles gives its people a fine chance to look out on the North Sea. The old town of Hull is the largest s.h.i.+pping port. Scarboro, on the coast, is the great watering-place for the north of England.

Leeds, Sheffield, Hull and Bradford are the largest towns. It is the princ.i.p.al seat of the woollen manufacture in Great Britain. The people are self-reliant and progressive. In Yorks.h.i.+re to-day are to be found the oldest co-operative corn-mills and the oldest co-operative stores in England. The practice of dividing profits among purchasers in proportion to their trade at the store was first adopted by a Yorks.h.i.+re society. This is just what might be expected from the people who, in 1793, pa.s.sed the following resolution: "Resolved, that monopolies are inconsistent with the true principles of commerce, because they restrain at once the spirit of enterprise and the freedom of compet.i.tion, and are injurious to the country where they exist, because the monopolist, by fixing the rate of both sale and purchase, can oppress the public at discretion."

Another resolution pa.s.sed by the same corporation, but earlier in the century, shows our ancestors in a somewhat different light. A day of thanksgiving was appointed for the success of the British forces. The corporation attended divine service in the parish church, after which it was agreed to meet at Mrs. Owen's, "at five of the clock, to drink to His Majesty's health and further good success," the expense of the evening to be at the corporation's charge.

The old Yorks.h.i.+re men liked a good, honest horse-race, and fox-hunting was a favorite sport with them. It is told of a Mr. Kirkton that he followed the hounds on horseback until he was eighty, and from that period to one hundred he regularly attended the unkennelling of the fox in his single chair. Scott's "Dandy Dinmont" could scarcely overtop that. No one can read the "Annals of Yorks.h.i.+re" without being struck with the number of persons who at their death left bequests to the poor, widows getting a large share of this bounty.

John Wesley, very soon after he began his life-work, found his way to Yorks.h.i.+re, and nowhere had he more sincere or devoted followers, many of whom were among the first emigrants to Nova Scotia. To the England of the eighteenth century America must have presented great attraction, especially to the tenant-farmer and the day-laborer. The farmer in that country could never hope to own his farm, and the wages of the agricultural laborer were so small that it was only by the strictest economy and the best of health that he could hope to escape the workhouse in his old age. In America land could be had for the asking.

The continent was simply waiting for the hands of willing workers to make it the happy home of millions. The reaction in trade after the Seven Years' War made the prospect just starting in life gloomier than ever, and many a father and mother who expected to end their days in the Old Land, decided, for the sake of their children, to face the dangers of the western ocean and the trials of pioneer life.

Charles Dixon, one of the first of the Yorks.h.i.+re emigrants, writes of England before he left: "I saw the troubles that were befalling my native country. Oppressions of every kind abounded, and it was very difficult to earn bread and keep a conscience void of offence." Under these circ.u.mstances, Mr. Dixon and a number of others decided to emigrate. It is not surprising then, that when Governor Franklin, at the invitation of the Duke of Rutland, went down to Yorks.h.i.+re in 1771, to seek emigrants for Nova Scotia, he found a goodly number of persons ready to try their fortunes in the new land.